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Disappoint Me
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10 copies available
U.S. only
After a rough tumble and maybe-serious head injury, a disillusioned trans poet falls for a charming corporate lawyer in a love story that grapples with the explosive ghosts of relationships past, romantic and familial, from the Lambda Award-nominated author of Bellies, Nicola Dinan
“Fell down the stairs and woke up a trad wife.”
Max is thirty, a published poet and grossly overpaid legal counsel for a tech company. With a lifetime of dysphoria and fuccbois rattling around in her head, Max is plagued with a deep dissatisfaction during what should be the best years of her life. After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First things first: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity.
Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent, a corporate lawyer and hobby baker, whose trad friendship group may as well speak a foreign language, and whose Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman. This uncharted territory may have rough terrain, but Vincent cares for Max in a way she’d long given up on as a foolish fantasy.
Yet Vincent is carrying his own baggage from his gap year in Thailand a decade prior: an explosive entanglement with a mysterious, gorgeous traveler. Voice-driven, warm, and poignant, Disappoint Me is an exploration of millennial angst, race, trans panic, and the allure of bourgeois domesticity that asks if we are defined by our worst mistakes.
“Fell down the stairs and woke up a trad wife.”
Max is thirty, a published poet and grossly overpaid legal counsel for a tech company. With a lifetime of dysphoria and fuccbois rattling around in her head, Max is plagued with a deep dissatisfaction during what should be the best years of her life. After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First things first: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity.
Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent, a corporate lawyer and hobby baker, whose trad friendship group may as well speak a foreign language, and whose Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman. This uncharted territory may have rough terrain, but Vincent cares for Max in a way she’d long given up on as a foolish fantasy.
Yet Vincent is carrying his own baggage from his gap year in Thailand a decade prior: an explosive entanglement with a mysterious, gorgeous traveler. Voice-driven, warm, and poignant, Disappoint Me is an exploration of millennial angst, race, trans panic, and the allure of bourgeois domesticity that asks if we are defined by our worst mistakes.
320 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication January 23, 2025
About the author
Nicola Dinan
3 books199 followersNicola Dinan grew up in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur and now lives in London. She studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University before training as a lawyer. Bellies, her debut, was shortlisted for the Mo Siewcharran prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
November 30, 2024
Update: ARC SECURED
new lit fic novel by Bellies author Nicola Dinan WHO'S WITH ME?!
new lit fic novel by Bellies author Nicola Dinan WHO'S WITH ME?!
November 12, 2024
I enjoyed the dual narrative; it really helped me connect to the story seeing the mindsets of Max and Vincent. Nicola Dinan did a beautiful job of addressing modern relationships, identity, and forgiveness. Max was so complex, I felt that I was there, seeing everything she had to overcome. This is well written but quite forgettable, which is a personal opinion because I've read a lot of books with this similar plot that have affected me more deeply. This book is just not one I would read again. I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
December 19, 2024
4.5
At least Disappoint Me didn't make me cry. It was, however, just as beautifully written as Bellies.
Disappoint Me tells us the story of Max, a trans woman and her boyfriend, Vincent - a man with secrets.
The dual timeline follows Max and Vincent's relationship but also Vincent's past during his gap year.
It is a simple story but it is beautifully told and the richness of the storytelling sets it above other novels.
This is a very different novel to Bellies exploring, as it does, relationships between families, romantic ones between men and trans women, forgiveness and acceptance, understanding that we all make mistakes and being able to admit our faults.
I loved Bellies and I loved Disappoint Me. I look forward to Nicola Dinan's next novel.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the advance review copy.
At least Disappoint Me didn't make me cry. It was, however, just as beautifully written as Bellies.
Disappoint Me tells us the story of Max, a trans woman and her boyfriend, Vincent - a man with secrets.
The dual timeline follows Max and Vincent's relationship but also Vincent's past during his gap year.
It is a simple story but it is beautifully told and the richness of the storytelling sets it above other novels.
This is a very different novel to Bellies exploring, as it does, relationships between families, romantic ones between men and trans women, forgiveness and acceptance, understanding that we all make mistakes and being able to admit our faults.
I loved Bellies and I loved Disappoint Me. I look forward to Nicola Dinan's next novel.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the advance review copy.
September 20, 2024
totally magnificent
November 21, 2024
nicola dinan’s ability to make me cry my eyes out in the final ten pages of a book must be studied
January 4, 2025
Dinan has triumphed again with her second novel. I loved Bellies and so was expecting great things from this. Although it took me a while to get into this one, once I was settled into the structure and knew the characters I absolutely loved it.
The book is told from two perspectives: Max and Vincent. The two of them meet at the start of the novel and strike up a relationship. Max’s story follows her as she navigates the new relationship as a trans woman and deals with some traumatic health issues, and Vincent’s story is almost like a flashback to his time in Thailand with a friend which goes horribly wrong after they both hook up with the same girl.
Once this novel got going it really grips you. Dinan is so good at writing deep, emotional scenes which you can tear your eyes away from. I love how her books are still about being trans, but they are more about friendship, betrayal and growth. The friendship group wasn’t as strong as the one in Bellies but the two main characters in this one really made it for me, and I thought it was amazing. I definitely recommend if you like books about messy friendship groups but which will have a big emotional impact on you.
The book is told from two perspectives: Max and Vincent. The two of them meet at the start of the novel and strike up a relationship. Max’s story follows her as she navigates the new relationship as a trans woman and deals with some traumatic health issues, and Vincent’s story is almost like a flashback to his time in Thailand with a friend which goes horribly wrong after they both hook up with the same girl.
Once this novel got going it really grips you. Dinan is so good at writing deep, emotional scenes which you can tear your eyes away from. I love how her books are still about being trans, but they are more about friendship, betrayal and growth. The friendship group wasn’t as strong as the one in Bellies but the two main characters in this one really made it for me, and I thought it was amazing. I definitely recommend if you like books about messy friendship groups but which will have a big emotional impact on you.
November 27, 2024
Thank you to the publishers for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
Nicola Dinan is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. I loved Bellies last year, and her upcoming new release Disappoint Me certainly did not disappoint me at all (pun intended). Dinan is superbly talented at storytelling and creating a really powerful, emotional, and important novel. This book tackles similar issues to those in Bellies, but it doesn’t feel repetitive in the slightest. The characters are really well developed and feel very real, and I was emotionally connected to the story throughout. Can’t wait for everyone to read this one!
Nicola Dinan is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. I loved Bellies last year, and her upcoming new release Disappoint Me certainly did not disappoint me at all (pun intended). Dinan is superbly talented at storytelling and creating a really powerful, emotional, and important novel. This book tackles similar issues to those in Bellies, but it doesn’t feel repetitive in the slightest. The characters are really well developed and feel very real, and I was emotionally connected to the story throughout. Can’t wait for everyone to read this one!
December 7, 2024
Oh, this one was delicious!
2025 will be an unmatched year for books, I fear.
Thank you NetGalley and Nicola Dinan for the ARC.
2025 will be an unmatched year for books, I fear.
Thank you NetGalley and Nicola Dinan for the ARC.
December 11, 2024
A haunting, sad yet funny Literary Fiction commentary and character study in an experience of being a Transgender millennial navigating the modern landscape. Max is a 30 year old lawyer and poet, flirting with sobriety and in a new relationship with Vincent. Her brother, who can't commit to a relationship, is going to start a family and be a co-parent. She has a good community and friends, but constantly worries about being forgotten and being out-of-place. Of not being self-aware to her own destruction.
This is a painfully constructed novel, helped create a sense of empathy to those of us who benefit from heteronormativity in our complicated world. There are characters across a gender and sexuality spectrum, with a powerful community but similar insecurities that all of us have on a daily basis. This book is descriptive and smart, not one that I would read over and over again, but that gave me an insight into someone else's experience.
The POV is mostly Max but also changes to her boyfriend Vincent, with a very engaging thread that alternate in London and Bangkok. A somber yet hopeful story about the messiness of life and love.
Thaks to @netgalley and @thedialpress for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
#booksbooksbooks #booktok #bookstagram #arcreader #bookreview #bookrecommendations #disappointme
This is a painfully constructed novel, helped create a sense of empathy to those of us who benefit from heteronormativity in our complicated world. There are characters across a gender and sexuality spectrum, with a powerful community but similar insecurities that all of us have on a daily basis. This book is descriptive and smart, not one that I would read over and over again, but that gave me an insight into someone else's experience.
The POV is mostly Max but also changes to her boyfriend Vincent, with a very engaging thread that alternate in London and Bangkok. A somber yet hopeful story about the messiness of life and love.
Thaks to @netgalley and @thedialpress for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
#booksbooksbooks #booktok #bookstagram #arcreader #bookreview #bookrecommendations #disappointme
September 23, 2024
For me, Disappoint me was all the positive things about Bellies, concentrated and refined to produce a really excellent, thoughtful story. The book is dual perspective between Max, a 30 something transwoman and Vincent, a corporate lawyer. They meet on a dating app, and their relationship causes them both to consider more about what the next stage of life looks like for them, their relationship with heterosexuality and the complexities of forgiveness and love. Max, in her chapters, let’s us in on her life and the way she struggles to see her heterosexual friends reach traditional ‘life milestones’ now she’s in her 30s, while Vincent’s chapters are about his gap year as a 19 year old, and the events that took place that shape his life and friendship with Fred.
One thing Nicola does incredibly well is writing complex and engaging characters and relationships. Max struggles with her relationship with her parents, and her brother Jamie and herself have different ways with dealing with their childhood and operating as a family now that they are no longer children. I really liked Jamie’s character and thought his story raised interesting discussions about childhood, anger and hope for things to be better.
A large theme of the book is about forgiveness. How do you know if you should forgive someone? Do people change? I found these concepts engaging, and felt like Nicola intertwined philosophical questions seamlessly into the characters very normal and relatable lives. Perhaps some side stories and plots weren’t as developed as the reader wanted - you don’t get firm endings or solutions - but isn’t that life? The side plots made the story engaging and fast paced, and felt necessary while also having a very strong overall plot and story arc.
Anyways, I guess u could say that this book absolutely did not disappoint me ;)) Disappint me publishes January 2025 and thank u X for this proof!
One thing Nicola does incredibly well is writing complex and engaging characters and relationships. Max struggles with her relationship with her parents, and her brother Jamie and herself have different ways with dealing with their childhood and operating as a family now that they are no longer children. I really liked Jamie’s character and thought his story raised interesting discussions about childhood, anger and hope for things to be better.
A large theme of the book is about forgiveness. How do you know if you should forgive someone? Do people change? I found these concepts engaging, and felt like Nicola intertwined philosophical questions seamlessly into the characters very normal and relatable lives. Perhaps some side stories and plots weren’t as developed as the reader wanted - you don’t get firm endings or solutions - but isn’t that life? The side plots made the story engaging and fast paced, and felt necessary while also having a very strong overall plot and story arc.
Anyways, I guess u could say that this book absolutely did not disappoint me ;)) Disappint me publishes January 2025 and thank u X for this proof!
January 5, 2025
4.25 rtc
December 4, 2024
This book delivered everything I wanted and more. Bellies walked so Disappoint Me could run. I was so deeply moved by Max and Vincent and their innate humanness and all that comes with growing older. This story was so imperfect it was perfect.. 10/10
Thank you Netgally for the advanced ebook!
Thank you Netgally for the advanced ebook!
December 11, 2024
This was just really...perfect. I'm sad to leave these characters and their lives and the introspection they have brought out of me.
September 7, 2024
Ostensibly about a trans woman trying out heterosexuality, and what that would look like, although it’s really more about turning 30 and the way your life becomes more serious and you need to consider your future more concretely. Obvs it being about an unfulfilled transsexual living in Hackney and going through her Saturn return I felt victimised, distraught, horrified, although I actually didn’t really connect with her emotions and observations throughout. I felt like Max the main character was so serious and actually quite nasty, particularly in the first half. No offence but literally cheer up love it might never happen!!
The overall story about straight peoples lives really crystallising around this age while you’re still floating about and improvising made me feel worried about the future and the present and there wasn’t really a silver lining or resolution. It almost makes traditional heterosexuality feel like quite a nice insulating institution against the uncertainty and insecurity of being queer and trying to carve out a life for yourself which aligns with your values. She kind of makes her peace with the heterosexual world and decides to try to live a life that she wants within it despite having to make compromises and adjustments in order to do so, but she doesn’t really change anything about the world around her and to me it feels like a limp surrender to the forces of adulthood. Can’t wait to turn 31!
I kind of resented the authors philosophical intrusions on random stuff (isn’t it worrying that sustainability is a trend?) There are some wild af plot twists which kind of jar with the meditative, meandering tone generally. I don’t think this one is for the real girlies as it’s not camp enough but I imagine metropolitan men enjoying it very earnestly and #respectfully.
The overall story about straight peoples lives really crystallising around this age while you’re still floating about and improvising made me feel worried about the future and the present and there wasn’t really a silver lining or resolution. It almost makes traditional heterosexuality feel like quite a nice insulating institution against the uncertainty and insecurity of being queer and trying to carve out a life for yourself which aligns with your values. She kind of makes her peace with the heterosexual world and decides to try to live a life that she wants within it despite having to make compromises and adjustments in order to do so, but she doesn’t really change anything about the world around her and to me it feels like a limp surrender to the forces of adulthood. Can’t wait to turn 31!
I kind of resented the authors philosophical intrusions on random stuff (isn’t it worrying that sustainability is a trend?) There are some wild af plot twists which kind of jar with the meditative, meandering tone generally. I don’t think this one is for the real girlies as it’s not camp enough but I imagine metropolitan men enjoying it very earnestly and #respectfully.
November 3, 2024
Disappoint Me is a novel about relationships and growing up, as a thirty year old trans woman meets a new guy and navigates a more heteronormative life. Max works as a lawyer for a tech company, doing what their AI tool actually can't, and after a New Year's party ends with her falling down some stairs, she's looking for more stability. She meets Vincent, a corporate lawyer who is sweet and caring, even if a lot of his life feels unlike Max's. Looming is Max's friend's wedding, in which she's a bridesmaid, but a health scare and a secret from Vincent's past push that to the background, and Max must face up to what her future might actually hold.
Having loved Bellies, I was excited to read Dinan's next book, and Disappoint Me has a lot of similarities, focusing on characters' emotions and relationships, and navigating acting in ways that are or aren't see as 'normal'. In her second novel, Dinan focuses on ideas of where to go next, what happens after. The protagonist, Max, is thirty and watches as people suddenly start focusing on weddings and babies, or being obsessed with their jobs as an alternative. The book considers what kind of future there might be, especially for a heterosexual trans woman whose job doesn't challenge her and whose future as a poet didn't seem to go anywhere. There's a sense of trying out a heteronormative life, with some hilarious touches like that her boyfriend Vincent loves bringing up that he's read Detransition, Baby whenever talk turns to parenting, and this novel in general does feel like it follows on not only from Dinan's debut but other talked-about trans literary fiction like Detransition, Baby, exploring a world in which cis straight people have also read these novels.
Given the title, I did start fearing partway through that Disappoint Me's ending was going to be too bleak, but actually it is more ambivalent and purposefully ambiguous, showing the difficulty in seeing anything as an ending when the world always keeps going regardless. There's a lot of things that are thrown up in the novel and don't really get resolved, but again, as the book is trying to capture the fact that life keeps going on, and what that means when you're trying to work out your own life, this feels purposeful. The characters are messy, but as the ending tries to highlight, people aren't perfect and you can still love people when they mess up, and part of getting older is realising this.
Having loved Bellies, I was excited to read Dinan's next book, and Disappoint Me has a lot of similarities, focusing on characters' emotions and relationships, and navigating acting in ways that are or aren't see as 'normal'. In her second novel, Dinan focuses on ideas of where to go next, what happens after. The protagonist, Max, is thirty and watches as people suddenly start focusing on weddings and babies, or being obsessed with their jobs as an alternative. The book considers what kind of future there might be, especially for a heterosexual trans woman whose job doesn't challenge her and whose future as a poet didn't seem to go anywhere. There's a sense of trying out a heteronormative life, with some hilarious touches like that her boyfriend Vincent loves bringing up that he's read Detransition, Baby whenever talk turns to parenting, and this novel in general does feel like it follows on not only from Dinan's debut but other talked-about trans literary fiction like Detransition, Baby, exploring a world in which cis straight people have also read these novels.
Given the title, I did start fearing partway through that Disappoint Me's ending was going to be too bleak, but actually it is more ambivalent and purposefully ambiguous, showing the difficulty in seeing anything as an ending when the world always keeps going regardless. There's a lot of things that are thrown up in the novel and don't really get resolved, but again, as the book is trying to capture the fact that life keeps going on, and what that means when you're trying to work out your own life, this feels purposeful. The characters are messy, but as the ending tries to highlight, people aren't perfect and you can still love people when they mess up, and part of getting older is realising this.
November 28, 2024
This was my first from Nicola Dinan and I really liked it. The writing was witty and entertaining. The characters were dynamic and different from one another which made the reading experience much more interesting. Books like this tend to be hit or miss for me, a girl lost in love and life and has that "messy girl" stumbling through life type of story, but this book was a real hit and I think it has everything to do with Dinan's writing style. I really enjoyed it from the first to the last page. I think the book was the right length because I was left satisfied after reading the story and didn't feel like it dragged on too long, something that also causes me to feel wary about this genre from time to time. This book overall was a great read that I greatly enjoyed during my holiday travels and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a good literary/contemporary book.
***Thank you you Netgalley and Dial Press for sending me an E-ARC in exchange for a review***
***Thank you you Netgalley and Dial Press for sending me an E-ARC in exchange for a review***
September 23, 2024
If you read Bellies by Nicola Dinan, you know she has a knack for gorgeous writing, dissecting difficult themes and developing incredibly complex characters. You get all that in this new release too.
Yes it is about experiences of trans and queer people, but also about complexity of humans and relationships. How our culture and identity shape us. How our past mistakes and anxiety for future shape us. How they all affect our relationships and communication. The characters are all deeply flawed and there is a lot of miscommunication despite love between them. Everything gets messy. In a relatable way though.
I must admit I prefer Bellies as there was more warmth and hope and I connected with the main characters better. But Disappoint Me is great in its own ways. I am looking forward to reading more by Nicola Dinan in the future!
4-4.5 🌟
Coming in 2025!
Yes it is about experiences of trans and queer people, but also about complexity of humans and relationships. How our culture and identity shape us. How our past mistakes and anxiety for future shape us. How they all affect our relationships and communication. The characters are all deeply flawed and there is a lot of miscommunication despite love between them. Everything gets messy. In a relatable way though.
I must admit I prefer Bellies as there was more warmth and hope and I connected with the main characters better. But Disappoint Me is great in its own ways. I am looking forward to reading more by Nicola Dinan in the future!
4-4.5 🌟
Coming in 2025!
November 19, 2024
ARC Review!
first of all thank you so much for the opportunity of receiving an ARC <3
second the review, i cant lie in the beginning of this book i was so confused on what i was reading because it’s a lot of max’s thoughts being spoken aloud along with her thought process and it didn’t take me until a chapter or 2 later to understand. (so thankful for the dual pov to understand more of the story)
however, the writing itself was great & i love that the few main focuses here are forgiveness, growth, identity & relationships. nicola did a great job with situations & issues in the book not being fully solved and instead made a reference of “the world kept spinning” because that happens in life, it’s never a stand still no matter what you’re going though. i personally love that the characters in this novel are messy because it captures the amount of inner monologues they have before speaking, the thoughts they have that are running at miles per hour, it captures the growth aspect of this book well.
the book is a great read but i can definitely see the book not being for certain people & overall nicola’s writing is intriguing and makes me want to read more of her work in the near future :)
first of all thank you so much for the opportunity of receiving an ARC <3
second the review, i cant lie in the beginning of this book i was so confused on what i was reading because it’s a lot of max’s thoughts being spoken aloud along with her thought process and it didn’t take me until a chapter or 2 later to understand. (so thankful for the dual pov to understand more of the story)
however, the writing itself was great & i love that the few main focuses here are forgiveness, growth, identity & relationships. nicola did a great job with situations & issues in the book not being fully solved and instead made a reference of “the world kept spinning” because that happens in life, it’s never a stand still no matter what you’re going though. i personally love that the characters in this novel are messy because it captures the amount of inner monologues they have before speaking, the thoughts they have that are running at miles per hour, it captures the growth aspect of this book well.
the book is a great read but i can definitely see the book not being for certain people & overall nicola’s writing is intriguing and makes me want to read more of her work in the near future :)
December 5, 2024
Thank You Netgalley and The Dial Press for my Advanced Reader’s Copy!
Oh, my, God. This was such a delight to read. Touching, moving, heartbreaking, honest and so very real. Nicola writes from the heart and directly from the soul.
Disappoint Me is the story of a trans woman trying to navigate her life now that she’s 30 and a new relationship that feels promising. I think this is a fantastic read for anyone leaving their twenties and entering their thirties. A book for those of us who feel lost and are trying to make sense of the world. This book was hilarious as it was devastating, and I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy next year. Disappoint Me will hit bookstores May 27, 2025!
Oh, my, God. This was such a delight to read. Touching, moving, heartbreaking, honest and so very real. Nicola writes from the heart and directly from the soul.
Disappoint Me is the story of a trans woman trying to navigate her life now that she’s 30 and a new relationship that feels promising. I think this is a fantastic read for anyone leaving their twenties and entering their thirties. A book for those of us who feel lost and are trying to make sense of the world. This book was hilarious as it was devastating, and I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy next year. Disappoint Me will hit bookstores May 27, 2025!
December 4, 2024
4.5 ⭐️
actual review to come later as it is 4am and i am delirious and disheveled from binging this and the range of emotions that came with it BUT in short, i will say that this was incredible and i urge you to get your hands on a copy when it releases. this is another arc that is making me very excited for the direction litfic will be taking in 2025. big thank you to the dial press and netgalley for the e-arc!
actual review to come later as it is 4am and i am delirious and disheveled from binging this and the range of emotions that came with it BUT in short, i will say that this was incredible and i urge you to get your hands on a copy when it releases. this is another arc that is making me very excited for the direction litfic will be taking in 2025. big thank you to the dial press and netgalley for the e-arc!
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December 10, 2024Actually finished this a while ago, but forgot to post it on here.
A strong follow up to Bellies that deals with societal pressure, complex relationships under late-stage capitalism, and the current landscape for dating. Enjoyed it.
A strong follow up to Bellies that deals with societal pressure, complex relationships under late-stage capitalism, and the current landscape for dating. Enjoyed it.
October 1, 2024
Simply perfect
November 19, 2024
I simply adore Nicola Dinan. Her writing is impeccable, darkly funny and expertly captures the range of what it means to be a person muddling through :’)
December 21, 2024
she's done it again (4.5/5)
told in dual perspectives and timelines, disappoint me follows max and vincent, two 30-something-year-olds who meet on a dating app and begin a relationship. exploring transness, complex relationships, how our lives and experiences shape us, and forgiveness, dinan's creates deeply empathetic and flawed characters. there is so much wonderful growth and setback and very real feelings of trying to make sense of who you are and your place in the world. max and vincent's anxieties going into the relationship and during the relationship were well-written and realistic, and i liked seeing them both come together and fight to understand each other over the course of their relationship.
i cannot write a review for nicola dinan without mentioning her stunning prose; i would read anything she writes at this point. i loved her inclusion of mundane details, something i also loved about her debut novel, bellies, and how much it adds to the characterization, world-building and making her protagonists feel real and whole.
the ending left me with more questions than answers, but it felt true to life and deeply cathartic. a quiet, beautifully-written and thought-provoking novel, that is more than worth the read.
Many, many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC.
told in dual perspectives and timelines, disappoint me follows max and vincent, two 30-something-year-olds who meet on a dating app and begin a relationship. exploring transness, complex relationships, how our lives and experiences shape us, and forgiveness, dinan's creates deeply empathetic and flawed characters. there is so much wonderful growth and setback and very real feelings of trying to make sense of who you are and your place in the world. max and vincent's anxieties going into the relationship and during the relationship were well-written and realistic, and i liked seeing them both come together and fight to understand each other over the course of their relationship.
i cannot write a review for nicola dinan without mentioning her stunning prose; i would read anything she writes at this point. i loved her inclusion of mundane details, something i also loved about her debut novel, bellies, and how much it adds to the characterization, world-building and making her protagonists feel real and whole.
the ending left me with more questions than answers, but it felt true to life and deeply cathartic. a quiet, beautifully-written and thought-provoking novel, that is more than worth the read.
Many, many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC.
January 8, 2025
I was provided with an eARC of
Disappoint Me
by Nicola Dinan via NetGalley. I haven’t read Dinan’s other book, Bellies, so this is my first time exploring her work, but after reading the blurb I was quite excited. Max is a thirty year old trans poet with a lifetime of dysphoria and disappointment behind her, who finds herself bogged down in dissatisfaction with the way her life has turned out. Following an accident at a part, Max decides it’s time to make some changes in her life. Her answer? A dose of some old fashioned heteronormativity. Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent, a corporate lawyer whose own life and friend group are worlds apart from her own. Despite her misgivings, Vincent cares about Max in a way she’s always craved, but he’s carrying around baggage of his own.
I identified with Max’s character quite quickly. She has such a wonderful, biting sense of humor and although I’m not a transwoman and can’t speak from that experience, her “dilemma” that propels the story definitely resonated with me. Would my life be much simpler if I could just be a tradwife?* Ensconced in some lovely heteronormative relationship with a man who enjoys John Wick films and naming our children things like Bentley and Braxton and Paxton and Traxton? I’d give fantastic Carol Brady realness (if I had an Alice, I’m not doing all that cooking) Straight (and cisgender) folk often get to have their lives settled in this very normative way that many queer people don’t (or weren’t afforded the opportunity to.) Being trans surely only complicates things further, so it made Max an entrancing and sympathetic protagonist to share space with. Dinan also explores a really complex dynamic with Max and her family that added greater depth to an already
*Absolutely not, easy to ask this from the seat of my male privilege, but I do get the sentiment.
Disappoint Me is told from dual perspectives, with Vincent’s chapters taking place around ten years in the past. I enjoyed this aspect of the story, because it really allowed me to get to know his character, and these chapters do eventually have consequences that affect the rest of the story. Although I didn’t connect as well with Vincent, I absolutely understood the appeal and found him to be completely endearing from nearly his first moment on the page I thought these chapters were excellent and there were several moments where I actually found myself frustrated when the story cut to present. I’m impatient and I wanted answers! But, this added an element of suspense to the novel and really added some necessary tension that later explodes in an unforgettable fashion.
This is a novel about forgiveness, guilt, confronting the past, and acknowledging that love — no matter the type of relationship — takes real and hard work. In Disappointed Me, Dinan creates these wonderfully nuanced characters that are so incredibly interesting to follow. This is especially true of Max and Vincent, but the supporting cast (Simone, Fred, Aisha) are equally well-defined wishing I could peer more into their lives as well. The humorous bits of the novel are really well done, as are the tender moments. Even the more unsettling scenes depicted in the work are engrossing. I loved this novel as a whole, but the third was exceptional. There’s something special about this novel, almost like the spirit of an angsty romantic drama, that made it difficult to put down. I can’t wait to see how others respond to this book!
I identified with Max’s character quite quickly. She has such a wonderful, biting sense of humor and although I’m not a transwoman and can’t speak from that experience, her “dilemma” that propels the story definitely resonated with me. Would my life be much simpler if I could just be a tradwife?* Ensconced in some lovely heteronormative relationship with a man who enjoys John Wick films and naming our children things like Bentley and Braxton and Paxton and Traxton? I’d give fantastic Carol Brady realness (if I had an Alice, I’m not doing all that cooking) Straight (and cisgender) folk often get to have their lives settled in this very normative way that many queer people don’t (or weren’t afforded the opportunity to.) Being trans surely only complicates things further, so it made Max an entrancing and sympathetic protagonist to share space with. Dinan also explores a really complex dynamic with Max and her family that added greater depth to an already
*Absolutely not, easy to ask this from the seat of my male privilege, but I do get the sentiment.
Disappoint Me is told from dual perspectives, with Vincent’s chapters taking place around ten years in the past. I enjoyed this aspect of the story, because it really allowed me to get to know his character, and these chapters do eventually have consequences that affect the rest of the story. Although I didn’t connect as well with Vincent, I absolutely understood the appeal and found him to be completely endearing from nearly his first moment on the page I thought these chapters were excellent and there were several moments where I actually found myself frustrated when the story cut to present. I’m impatient and I wanted answers! But, this added an element of suspense to the novel and really added some necessary tension that later explodes in an unforgettable fashion.
This is a novel about forgiveness, guilt, confronting the past, and acknowledging that love — no matter the type of relationship — takes real and hard work. In Disappointed Me, Dinan creates these wonderfully nuanced characters that are so incredibly interesting to follow. This is especially true of Max and Vincent, but the supporting cast (Simone, Fred, Aisha) are equally well-defined wishing I could peer more into their lives as well. The humorous bits of the novel are really well done, as are the tender moments. Even the more unsettling scenes depicted in the work are engrossing. I loved this novel as a whole, but the third was exceptional. There’s something special about this novel, almost like the spirit of an angsty romantic drama, that made it difficult to put down. I can’t wait to see how others respond to this book!
January 8, 2025
I was thrilled to have been offered this ARC—I adored Bellies , such a fantastic debut, so I practically devoured Disappoint Me . Nicola Dinan has done it again; her second book is even better.
No doubt about it, Nicola Dinan is a master storyteller. From the very start, I was completely enveloped by Max and her friends. I love that the story kicks off at a New Year’s Eve party in London— I would have loved to have been there (if only)! After a mishap, Max finds herself at Homerton Hospital, quipping that “jealousy and weak joints got her there.”
Max is a lawyer currently on a “training AI job”, and she just had a book of poetry published that “The Guardian shat on.” (I couldn’t resist searching online to see if Dinan was referring to her own work—there was nothing that pointed to that. In fact, The Guardian, like me, loved Bellies , too.), her ex is doing better with publishing his own work though. At one point Max jokes “Half of queer culture is fronting as an artist while working in an office. It’s the new, more gruelling system of artistic patronage.”
Max’s New Year’s resolution? To find a boyfriend: “We live in a world that pathologises singleness, where being single means being alone.” Enter Vincent, a fellow lawyer who’s also Chinese, and our story truly begins.
The main narration is from Max in 2023, but we also get glimpses into Vincent’s perspective during a pivotal gap year trip to Thailand in 2012. I enjoyed both timelines equally; Dinan has an amazing gift for creating characters that leap off the page, and Max, Vincent, Simone, Aisha, Fred, Alex—the entire cast—are no exception. Special mention goes to the touching moment between father and daughter, when they finally communicate—it just felt so honest and vulnerable. Needless to say, I was gripped from start to finish.
The social commentary is spot on. They inhabit a self-aware Gen Y/Z world, understanding how their “Thatcher flat” contributes to the problems, how they’ve “colonised” a piece of Hackney, and how “being a bit Chinese doesn’t absolve” anyone of that. Self-awareness doesn’t make it any better, and I love Dinan’s narrative all the more for it. Her emotionally charged storytelling is grounded. The witty repartees and sarcastic musings are ever so observant of our current human ethics and morals. Their questions and reflections on what we’re experiencing today are both poignant and deeply relatable.
Dinan expertly propels the story forward, as we witness Max transition from one party to another—be it the festive New Year’s Eve bash, family dinner gatherings, or intimate dates with her soon-to-be boyfriend, culminating in a grand wedding celebration. I was completely enraptured.
Disappoint Me is deliciously witty, fiery, and fierce—my first novel of 2025. If my reading continues this strong, I’m in for a wonderful treat. #pudseyrecommends
Thanks to NetGalley, Nicola Dinan, and Random House UK for the ARC
No doubt about it, Nicola Dinan is a master storyteller. From the very start, I was completely enveloped by Max and her friends. I love that the story kicks off at a New Year’s Eve party in London— I would have loved to have been there (if only)! After a mishap, Max finds herself at Homerton Hospital, quipping that “jealousy and weak joints got her there.”
Max is a lawyer currently on a “training AI job”, and she just had a book of poetry published that “The Guardian shat on.” (I couldn’t resist searching online to see if Dinan was referring to her own work—there was nothing that pointed to that. In fact, The Guardian, like me, loved Bellies , too.), her ex is doing better with publishing his own work though. At one point Max jokes “Half of queer culture is fronting as an artist while working in an office. It’s the new, more gruelling system of artistic patronage.”
Max’s New Year’s resolution? To find a boyfriend: “We live in a world that pathologises singleness, where being single means being alone.” Enter Vincent, a fellow lawyer who’s also Chinese, and our story truly begins.
The main narration is from Max in 2023, but we also get glimpses into Vincent’s perspective during a pivotal gap year trip to Thailand in 2012. I enjoyed both timelines equally; Dinan has an amazing gift for creating characters that leap off the page, and Max, Vincent, Simone, Aisha, Fred, Alex—the entire cast—are no exception. Special mention goes to the touching moment between father and daughter, when they finally communicate—it just felt so honest and vulnerable. Needless to say, I was gripped from start to finish.
The social commentary is spot on. They inhabit a self-aware Gen Y/Z world, understanding how their “Thatcher flat” contributes to the problems, how they’ve “colonised” a piece of Hackney, and how “being a bit Chinese doesn’t absolve” anyone of that. Self-awareness doesn’t make it any better, and I love Dinan’s narrative all the more for it. Her emotionally charged storytelling is grounded. The witty repartees and sarcastic musings are ever so observant of our current human ethics and morals. Their questions and reflections on what we’re experiencing today are both poignant and deeply relatable.
Dinan expertly propels the story forward, as we witness Max transition from one party to another—be it the festive New Year’s Eve bash, family dinner gatherings, or intimate dates with her soon-to-be boyfriend, culminating in a grand wedding celebration. I was completely enraptured.
Disappoint Me is deliciously witty, fiery, and fierce—my first novel of 2025. If my reading continues this strong, I’m in for a wonderful treat. #pudseyrecommends
Thanks to NetGalley, Nicola Dinan, and Random House UK for the ARC
November 29, 2024
Well, I loved this.
I finished this book a few days ago, and it has lingered with me in a way I did not expect. I keep thinking of Max and wondering what she is up to, as if she is a real person I know and not a character in a book.
This book follows Max, a trans woman who suffers an injury at a party and decides to make some changes in her life- namely, she embarks on a new relationship with a man who is not her usual type. She navigates issues with her own family and personal life while also dealing with the new experiences that come with dating a man who lives a very different lifestyle than hers.
What I liked:
I think this book is a perfect mix of character and plot developments. A lot of this book is Max’s inner thoughts as she grows and changes as a person. Yet, there is also a lot of things happening- throughout this book, Max travels to several different countries and is always up to something new.
I just really really liked Max. She is a complicated person and I felt she was incredibly relatable and sympathetic. She is not without flaws and is very willing to acknowledge them. She is a good friend, a good partner, a good daughter, and a good sister, yet she makes realistic mistakes in those relationships.
There are some core themes here about what you can forgive a person for and much how a person can really change. I don’t want to give any spoilers about this, but I loved what the author did with the flashbacks to what Vincent did in his past. I love when an author can make me feel such conflicting things for a character, and that 100% succeeded here.
Honestly, I cannot think of a single thing I did not like about this book and if I were going to put spoilers in here, I think I could talk about it for hours. I loved this, and will definitely be seeking out more books by this author in the future.
5 stars for an emotional, thought provoking, beautiful read.
thank you to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an unbiased review!
I finished this book a few days ago, and it has lingered with me in a way I did not expect. I keep thinking of Max and wondering what she is up to, as if she is a real person I know and not a character in a book.
This book follows Max, a trans woman who suffers an injury at a party and decides to make some changes in her life- namely, she embarks on a new relationship with a man who is not her usual type. She navigates issues with her own family and personal life while also dealing with the new experiences that come with dating a man who lives a very different lifestyle than hers.
What I liked:
I think this book is a perfect mix of character and plot developments. A lot of this book is Max’s inner thoughts as she grows and changes as a person. Yet, there is also a lot of things happening- throughout this book, Max travels to several different countries and is always up to something new.
I just really really liked Max. She is a complicated person and I felt she was incredibly relatable and sympathetic. She is not without flaws and is very willing to acknowledge them. She is a good friend, a good partner, a good daughter, and a good sister, yet she makes realistic mistakes in those relationships.
There are some core themes here about what you can forgive a person for and much how a person can really change. I don’t want to give any spoilers about this, but I loved what the author did with the flashbacks to what Vincent did in his past. I love when an author can make me feel such conflicting things for a character, and that 100% succeeded here.
Honestly, I cannot think of a single thing I did not like about this book and if I were going to put spoilers in here, I think I could talk about it for hours. I loved this, and will definitely be seeking out more books by this author in the future.
5 stars for an emotional, thought provoking, beautiful read.
thank you to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an unbiased review!
December 9, 2024
Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan did quite the opposite of its title. While it took me a few chapters to fully get into the story, once I found my rhythm, I was hooked. The novel follows Max, a trans woman who, after an accident that leaves her with a head injury, decides to start the year by embracing heteronormativity, a choice that brings new complexities to her life. The other perspective comes from Vincent, a man grappling with his sexuality while trying to come to terms with a past mistake he made during his time in Thailand a decade earlier.
Dinan’s writing is beautiful and nuanced, capturing the complexity of growing up and the isolating effect of friendships evolving as people move through different stages in life. Each character is facing significant personal struggles and searching for forgiveness, whether from others or themselves, all while navigating the challenges of love and acceptance.
For me, the alternating timelines between London and Thailand added a rich layer to the narrative. As an expat in Thailand around the same time as Vincent’s story, the setting and the memories it evoked were especially poignant. I also found Max’s family dynamics compelling and well-developed, adding depth to her journey. The diversity of the characters—whether in terms of ethnicity, sexuality, or identity—was another standout feature. Dinan fully imagined each character, making them feel real and multi-dimensional.
Disappoint Me reminded me of works by Coco Mellors and Antonia Angress, with its melancholic, beautiful undercurrent and engaging plot. It’s a story that is as emotionally resonant as it is thought-provoking. I look forward to reading more of Dinan’s work in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group—Random House & The Dial Press for providing me with an advanced e-copy.
Dinan’s writing is beautiful and nuanced, capturing the complexity of growing up and the isolating effect of friendships evolving as people move through different stages in life. Each character is facing significant personal struggles and searching for forgiveness, whether from others or themselves, all while navigating the challenges of love and acceptance.
For me, the alternating timelines between London and Thailand added a rich layer to the narrative. As an expat in Thailand around the same time as Vincent’s story, the setting and the memories it evoked were especially poignant. I also found Max’s family dynamics compelling and well-developed, adding depth to her journey. The diversity of the characters—whether in terms of ethnicity, sexuality, or identity—was another standout feature. Dinan fully imagined each character, making them feel real and multi-dimensional.
Disappoint Me reminded me of works by Coco Mellors and Antonia Angress, with its melancholic, beautiful undercurrent and engaging plot. It’s a story that is as emotionally resonant as it is thought-provoking. I look forward to reading more of Dinan’s work in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group—Random House & The Dial Press for providing me with an advanced e-copy.
Read
November 30, 2024Dinan’s début novel Bellies was so good—and such a surprise—when I read it back in September that I was really delighted to be sent a proof of her second. One of the things I liked about Bellies was how it deals with a part of young life that doesn’t get a lot of coverage in fiction, namely those odd years right after you’ve left university but don’t feel like you’re properly fledged yet and are trying to navigate a lot of sudden changes to your relationships/friendships with other people. Disappoint Me is set amongst people in their early thirties, some of whom have had some artistic success, but there’s that same sense of not quite being convinced by your own adultness and yet also being aware that you do now have to act like an adult. (Well, apart from the fact that all these folks take a lot of drugs, which I can’t identify with and have never been interested in.) Max, the protagonist of Disappoint Me, does feel a little bit like an aged-up Ming from Bellies—their wryness, their humour, their fears, are very similar—but Vincent, Max’s boyfriend, felt like a really original creation to me. So much in this about having juuuust enough history, and enough perspective on your own youthful behaviour, to be ashamed by, and about trying to do better without exculpating your earlier mistakes. I wonder, also, if Hanya Yanagihara is a conscious influence; Dinan uses melodrama with similar panache. Anyway, a lot of people are going to feel seen by this and it’s very good. Source: paper ARC from publisher/eARC from NetGalley. Publishes 23 Jan., 2025.
January 7, 2025
5/5 ⭐
Thanks Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review!!!
This book is hard to describe, but I'll try. It's about regrets, trauma, family, platonic friends, love, breakups, forgiveness, and I couldn't put it down! The main character's voice is powerful. It is refreshing to have a book where the main character is trans.
In the book's first part, I didn't initially love the main characters as they seemed judgemental. But as I got into the book, I recognized that this was just cynism, being hardened to life because of all the crap life has thrown at them (and continues to), and by the end of the book, I loved every character (even the side characters).
I know BRAT summer is over, and next summer will probably be dubbed something new, but this book is so BRAT.
This book challenged me with some interesting moral/ethical dilemmas; the characters are genuine, messy, and imperfect. I feel really lucky to get into Max's head and hear and see how she views life. The way Dinan writes about everyday life experiences and uses analogies to sum them up is chefs kiss PERFECTION. I wish I could add quotes to this review (but I can't cause it's not published yet).
Sometimes, the jumps in time between chapters felt awkward, but other times, it just added to the intensity.
This book is filled with so much beautiful, imperfect nuance. I loved it. Also that ending!?!??!
Thanks Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review!!!
This book is hard to describe, but I'll try. It's about regrets, trauma, family, platonic friends, love, breakups, forgiveness, and I couldn't put it down! The main character's voice is powerful. It is refreshing to have a book where the main character is trans.
In the book's first part, I didn't initially love the main characters as they seemed judgemental. But as I got into the book, I recognized that this was just cynism, being hardened to life because of all the crap life has thrown at them (and continues to), and by the end of the book, I loved every character (even the side characters).
I know BRAT summer is over, and next summer will probably be dubbed something new, but this book is so BRAT.
This book challenged me with some interesting moral/ethical dilemmas; the characters are genuine, messy, and imperfect. I feel really lucky to get into Max's head and hear and see how she views life. The way Dinan writes about everyday life experiences and uses analogies to sum them up is chefs kiss PERFECTION. I wish I could add quotes to this review (but I can't cause it's not published yet).
Sometimes, the jumps in time between chapters felt awkward, but other times, it just added to the intensity.
This book is filled with so much beautiful, imperfect nuance. I loved it. Also that ending!?!??!
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